


'Fond' Memories of Science Camp

by SusanaR



Series: Los Ninos [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Secret Identity, Secrets, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-10
Packaged: 2017-12-04 20:53:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/714979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SusanaR/pseuds/SusanaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney receives an unwelcome email from an old comrade-in-arms, and does his best to rise to the occasion and deal with it. All while not showing that anything is wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Fond' Memories of Science Camp

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This story takes place within "12 Things Blair will never willingly tell anyone in Cascade PD (and how they found out anyway)," the first story in this series. The email to Rodney is one of the emails that Blair sends, trying to rally the network of former child spies to find out where this new 'camp' might be. As with that story, I must warn that the quality of this piece as well is not up to my norm.

When the link with Earth opened for the weekly exchange of emails, all of the department heads, even Rodney McKay, ignored their people taking an hour or so to review and respond to communications with their friends and family back on Earth. 

Sometimes Rodney would keep working on his own important experiments and leave his personal mail for later, and sometimes he was off world with his Team. This week, however, he was in the mood for a break, and at a good stopping point, so he indulged himself by checking to see what surprisingly aesthetic drawing of his niece's Jeannie had scanned in for him this time. Upon seeing that an email address he didn't recognize had made its way through all of the government protocols, Rodney almost failed to check it, but curiosity (as well as a desire to save Jeannie's non-work email for last) prompted him to open the message anyway. 

'Hey Rodney,

Not sure if you remember me, but we went to a Science Camp together as kids, that "Science of the Body and Mind Camp" where they made us do way more physical exercise than you thought was necessary, but you said it was still better than some other camp your parents sent you to which combined Science and Greek Myths. A friend of a friend of mine is considering sending his kid to a camp that sounds similar to the one you described as a "the worst of bad science and baseless stories, without even decent snacks." As a favor, could you hit me back with whatever you remember about the science/myth camp? If my friend does send his kid, I want to be able to tell him what he's looking at in the way of therapy bills and groveling to make it up to junior.

Thanks,

Jake Black' 

'Who is Jake Black, and whom should I make suffer for giving him my email address?' Rodney pondered at first. Then, as he read the message, he was overcome with a feeling of horror and helplessness. 

'Breathe, Rodney, breathe.' McKay reminded himself silently but firmly. 'You're on Atlantis. No one can hurt you here. Well - no one from Earth. Breathe, breathe. Zelenaka is staring at you now. If you don't start breathing he's going to say something, and you don't want to talk about this. Breathe....'

Despite Rodney's best efforts, he began to see spots and his vision blurred. He heard Radek's voice, but it seemed very far away. He was aware, in an academic way, that he was losing consciousness, but he found it difficult to even lift his fingers in the proper sequence to delete the email so that no one else could see it. He managed it, then, that task accomplished, he surrendered to the welcoming darkness, as he heard Zelenka call for Carson and a medical team. 

When he woke up, it was to John Sheppard's voice complaining as he played hangman with Ronon. "Its not fair for you to use Satedan words, Ronon. That's cheating." Atlantis's military commander reprimanded, sounding more like an aggrieved teenager than an airforce officer. 

"Satedan is my native language. You know a lot more Earth words than I do." Ronon said firmly, explaining "If you can use ferris wheel, I can use the name of the most popular Satedan desert. Rodney and Teyla would both know it."

"Tangele." Rodney said shortly, mouth quirking into a smile. "Let the wookie win, Sheppard. Especially since he's got an excellent point - two in fact, as you gorged yourself on Tangele last month and should recognize it anyway."

"Hey," John greeted his now conscious friend with a relieved smile. "You gave us a scare. Radek said you fainted while reading emails. Carson says your blood sugar's low but not so low you should have fainted from "manly hunger.'" 

Rodney repressed a shudder as he remembered the email, at the same time tilting his head as if trying to remember what had happened for his friends' benefit, while trying to look appropriately humiliated and irritated at having fainted again. It wasn't hard. Irritated was Rodney's natural state, and being humiliated always made him more irritated. In actuality, he was rather pleased that he'd only fainted, rather than having a panic attack or something even worse. Rodney brought a flush to his cheeks by thinking of how Sheppard had beat him at chess last week, and then blustered "Well, seeing as the latest bunch of "help" the SGC sent me is particularly backward, I've had to spend most of the past week when I should've been sleeping going over their work, so I had the days to spend on my own, very important, keep the city running, keep us alive type projects." There, Rodney thought to himself 'That should distract Sheppard, and has the benefit of being mostly true.'

John looked annoyed, as Rodney had hoped. John then began a lecture on why even geniuses such as Rodney need sleep and food like anybody else, which Rodney mostly tuned out. He expected he was going to hear the same thing from Carson soon enough anyway. Ronon, Rodney noted with less satisfaction, looked distinctly suspicious, but hopefully would keep his suspicions to himself. Fortunately, Ronon's suspicious expression was the look he gave the world when he was hungry, or annoyed (perhaps with hangman), so John didn't seem to notice it. Being a fairly private person, Ronon was the most likely of Rodney's friends to let him work through something on his own. Teyla would want to discuss, and then let something slip to Elizabeth, and John tended to snitch to Carson. Somehow, Rodney needed to find enough time and privacy to send a reply to that email, then fall apart afterwards. "And probably during." He thought to himself ruefully. 

Atlantis, later that same day

Six hours later, Rodney finally sat down to email Jake Black, whom he supposed was probably one of the Belens, possibly even the original. 

'Jake,

Hope you are doing o.k. I do remember that camp - the most singularly unpleasant ordeal of my young life. No matter how gifted in the areas of science or mythology, I believe the only children who ever ended up there were those whose parents hadn't taken a careful look at the curricula or the management. The camp had very high standards; children who weren't sufficiently exceptionally gifted, or who didn't have the self-discipline to accomplish the required tasks, quickly washed out of the program. The administrators were none too careful about making sure the correct people picked up the dismissed students; you may want to check if that's still the case. If you don't know anyone who has been to the camp recently for your friend to talk to, I think the best bet might be to get in touch with one of the workers hired to see to the day-to-day needs of the students. The administrators generally didn't bother, and weren't especially careful about who they hired for that task. The camp itself purchased many of the finest reference and other materials to assist the students with their research. I have attached a list of what I remember of those materials. I could be back in the states in a few weeks or even tomorrow if needed - let me know if you want me to talk to your friend in person.

Best of luck,

R. McKay' 

Rodney picked an email of Jeannie's on their latest ZPM research, and one from Sam concerning a find of Daniel's that might be the handbook to an ancient weapon. Then he added Zelenka's and Kusanagi's initial responses to his own, forwarding the replies to Elizabeth along with a request that the gate be opened the next day to get these time sensitive replies out. Before sending, he attached his own reply to 'Jake,' and hoped for the best.


End file.
